OUTSTATION TRIP

I have just finished packing for a 3 day outstation trip to JB. It's a business trip that I have to do once in 2 or 3 months as I am managing some of the corporate accounts there. I have this love & hate affair with the outstation trip. I love it as it takes me away from the busy life of the office.

And I hate it as it can be very tiring. Since I don't go there that often, I'd have to cramp 3 appointments a day, it's tiring as I'd have to drive from one appointment to another. Even though I am quite familiar with the roads leading to the appointments, but I do get lost every now and then, that makes it even more tiring.

Those days, I used to drive my own car from KL. However, due to the increase in mileage claim, it's no longer cost effective to do so, unless there are at least two people in the car.

I normally stay at Eden Garden and I quite like it as I can go to the shopping arcade to window shop and also eating places are just nearby. Not to forget, I always buy chocolates at the duty free area.

It will not be any difference this time around and I look forward to it. Any my only hope is it'll not be that tiring....

BUSY AT WORK AND BUSY AT HOME ABOUT WORKS

This month is one of the busiest months at work. I work for an insurance company that specialises in group insurance and November is the peak for us to to renew the existing clients. It's very challenging now as medical cost is rising at unprecedented level over the past three years.

I worked last Saturday to complete the renewal presentation for one of our biggest clients. However, it was still not done and I had to bring it home. And I resumed it on Sunday for 4 hours. Today, Monday morning, it's almost complete and I just need to put in the renewal proposal.

I enjoy the work and the challenge is okay with me but I am planning to move on next year, may be to other insurers or other industries or be on my own. I cannot decide still and I am weighing all the pros and cons.

BANANA DIET!

Much has been talked about banana diet that has become a craze in Japan. Sale of banana has increased by 80% and the stores would have run out stock of banana by noon. It all started when an actress mentioned it in Japan's social network website that she has lost weight by going on banana diet.

There are various versions of the diet. First is for you to eat banana in the morning with room temperature water and for the rest of the day, you can go on with your usual meals. The second version is to eat banana before each meal, 2 before breakfast, 2 before lunch and 1 before dinner.

I am gonna give it a try and will track the progress. I am gonna follow the second version as it sounds logical. When you take banana before meal, you are spoiling your appetite from taking heavy meal. You end up eating less and of course you'll have less calorie to burn and not much left to be stored as fat. I have started yesterday night and weight was 70kg (based on my bathroom scale, it could be heavier). I will chart the progress here.

MAMMA MIA!

Finally, we had our Raya Open House last Sunday for family members and neighbours. They all turned up as planned and we had busy times entertaining them. Except for my younger brother, he apologised for not making it as he had to go an important meeting in Tanjung Malim.

The menu are Beef Bolognese Spaghetti, Tom Yam Laksa, Nasi Jagung and Chicken Kuzi. We also prepared konnyaku jelly as desserts.

We had so much foods until we had a lot of left overs. Didn't want to waste the foods, we invited my wife's friends to come over the next day. Thank God, the foods didn't go to waste.

On Monday, Deepavali holiday, I took the children, the eldest, a boy, 15 years old and the second eldest, a girl 13 years old for Mamma Mia!, the movie at Sunway Pyramid. Both of them enjoyed the show.

The plot for Mama Mia! - 20-year-old Sophie Sheridan lives with her mother Donna in her hotel ‘Villa Donna’, on the small Greek island of Kalokairi. She wants her father present at her upcoming wedding to Sky, but does not know his identity. After reading her mother's old diary, she has concluded he must be one of three men: Sam Carmichael, Harry Bright, or Bill Anderson. She secretly sends wedding invitations to all three – under Donna’s name and that she expects to recognize her real father instantly, but when she meets all the men at once, she realizes she cannot tell which he is.

After the show, we went to Tower Records and I showed my daughter ABBA hits CD where the songs from the movie come from. Unfortunately, tickets for the theatre performance has been sold out.

EXERCISE

I exercise regularly. I go to the gym in the morning 3 times a week. The gym is located at the first floor of our office building. There are not that many people there in the gym. Most of the times, I am alone there. Occasionally, there would be 1 or 2 more of my colleagues there. I exercise regularly due to health problem. I got hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol). The level was very high, 10 at one time. Now, I am on statin drugs and blood thinning drugs. People would think that I am fat. No definitely not. I am far from being fat. My height is 1.73m and weight is 72kg. Very much in my ideal weight. Right now, my cholesterol level is within the right level of 5.5.

I have been exercising regularly for more than 4 years now. I go to the gym during Ramadan too. Albeit much subdued routines. In the weekend, I'd vary my exercise, I'd either play badminton, go for swimming or jogging.

Today, it's Saturday. I am going for swimming afterward. As usual, I'd do 20 laps or 1,000 meters. I'd normally do breaststroke, so it'd take me about 40 minutes to do it.

And I am also planning to check the badminton court somewhere nearby as an alternative to the usual place that I go to in Puchong. I'd go there after the badminton game.

Below is an article that I extracted from thestar.com.my on exercise:

Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai said the Government’s many promotions to get people to lead a healthy lifestyle, has not worked.

“Nearly half or 43.1% of the adult population are overweight and this is a serious problem,” he said, adding that leading a sedentary lifestyle could pose serious health problems. Liow added, “one in every three adult Malaysians suffers from hypertension while one in five has high blood cholesterol levels.” People suffering from heart diseases have also increased by 18% from 37,284 in 2003 to 44,2001 in 2006, while deaths from coronary heart disease increased by 36% from 2,697 to 3,673 for the corresponding period, he said.

“Although we obtained these statistics from a survey done two years ago, the number of Malaysians suffering such ailments must have increased,” said Liow.

He called on Malaysians to exercise at least 30 minutes a day.

PETROL REBATE 2

I finally got the answer to the right petrol rebate amount. It's been RM625 all the while. What an uninformed citizen!

I went to the bank today and saved RM650 into my ASB account.

My target for 2009 is to save RM20,000 from my bonus.

Today, my colleague's sister died of hemorrhage dengue. He's got to pay for RM1,350 for the funeral expenses. I pity him as I know the fact that he's always had financial problems. So tomorrow, I will go around to meet my colleagues to collect donation for him. I sincerely hope that it will help to ease his financial burden.

Next, I will allocate my blog time to the Network Marketing businmess that I am in. I'd like to come up with the strategies on how to do the business. I believe the industry needs new approaches in building the business. I started by sending out flyers through news paper and the response hasn't been good. I suspect that the news paper vendor didn't do his job of inserting the flyers into the newspaper.

PETROL REBATE

I went to the Post Office in Giant USJ to renew my road tax. Yes, I finally got the road tax renewed for my Wira. And I also got my petrol rebate at the same time. The question is I only got RM625. All the while I thought it's RM650. I didn't get to ask the cashier at the Post Office. I really hope to find the answer to that. And by early November, I need to renew the road tax for my own car.

I'd have to spend a lot of money this month. The petrol rebate is a big relief.

An update. I haven't put my money into my ASB account as yet. I wanted to do it the other day but I didn't bring my ASB Account Book.

I really hope to do it today.

On another note, I have decided to do an open house for family members only. And I have got the menu in mind. It's going to be Beef Bolognese Spaghetti, Laksa Siam, Nasi Jagung and Chicken Kuzi. I will cook everything myself with the help of my wife and daughter. I hope to buy all the dry ingredients by Friday.

JPJ

I lost the grant of my wife's car during the cleaning up of papers after moving into my new house. It took time, money and effort to get the copy from JPJ. I also lost my release letter from EON Bank together with the grant.

First I had to make police report on the loss and took the report to the Bank for them to release the duplicate copy of the release letter and letter of consent to change the owner to me as I have fully paid the car.

And today, I had to take leave to go to Puspakom to inspect the car (very "leceh") for them to match the chassis no and engine number to the same details in the grant.

After that, I went to JPJ to get the duplicate of the grant. It took a while as it was blacked-out for almost 45 minutes.

Yes, I finally got back the grant after spending RM60 for the letter from EON Bank, RM25 for Puspakom report, RM50 for the grant, about RM10 parking fees and of course 1 day of leave and some sweats.

The story didn't end here as the air-cond for the car broke down today as well.

I'll be going to the workshop to get it fixed on the way to Post Office after ward. I am going to renew my road tax at Shah Alam Post Office.